i've been having fun with cafepress lately... today I designed this mug covered with resistors:



I barely ever sell anything on that place but it's fun to make designs so I just keep coming back. plus it says i've been a member since 2001... what the hell was going on then?

a guy in a big truck was an asshole towards me today. i was turning right. he was on the street i was turning onto, at a stop sign (I had no stop sign) waiting to turn left onto the street i was driving on. i was signaling right. i slowed down to, like, 5mph. but at the turn, i slid because the streets were coated with ice today. meanwhile truck champ figured that since i was signaling, he might as well start his left turn by pulling out right in front of me. i honked because i couldn't stop and i was hoping that since HE was stopped, he'd stay that way and i could just continue through the intersection. but he threw his hands up and waved me to the right like, "you signaled! gotta turn now, because i'm gonna block the intersection, because i'm an asshole!" and then i was angry.

personally, i never turn in front of someone just because they're signaling. i wait until i see clear evidence of successful turn initiation. but I don't drive a gigantic 4-wheel vehicle, so i guess i have to be more responsible.

i just looked over and my husband is reading the mooncup website... does this mean he's getting his period soon? he's been spending too much time on the spacefem forum since we had that austin meetup.

Yesterday was relaxing. I picked up a little bit in the morning, then humaazul and I ran some errands. We went to the food for thought, we went to the thrift store with bags of things, and bought some stuff there too. I bought:

• a cool old copy of Little House In The Big Woods for $0.29
  
• a garlic chopper that looks like this:
  
  I've seen them everywhere for $10 or $12, this one looked brand-new but was $2.
  
• a big green corduroy dress. ugly as hell, but the fabric is study and in good shape so I'm going to harvest it for a bag or pillowcase or something. If I spent $1 on corduroy at the fabric store I'd get 1/10th of what's on this dress.
  

We also went to the yarn store. humaazul enters the yarn store like norm at cheers; I thought about picking up knitting again but since I had just obtained project fabric, I opted to not buy.

on the way home I almost hit a dog and had a heart attack. it was CLOSE. I mean seriously... we were driving down a street with houses, so I wasn't going that fast. then I see this little white fluffy dog running around on the side of the road so I slow down. Then the thing starts RUNNING straight at my right front tire, like it's got a death wish or lost its mind or both. I slammed on the brakes but we heard a thump and I froze there, then look at h and say, "I JUST HIT THAT DOG!" I had no idea what to do. Then she says, "no you didn't, he's right over there!" She'd spotted him running on the other side. The thump we heard was, I think, my groceries spilling over in the back. I told her it was a good thing she'd spotted the dog being safe and happy, because I would have been frozen there for hours, guilt keeping me from driving on but fear of seeing dead dog keeping me from leaving the car to check.

I just joined AAA. They're more expensive than my current emergency roadside assistance (a short list of coworkers, ex-boyfriends, gay rights activists and family members) but my car is just... making me nervous. I mean, I love my car, I want to drive it forever (seriously, I will cry when I part with it) but shit's happening. The ignition lock cylinder thing is one good example. The fact that it leaks various fluids is another. And the last straw: I was driving down the highway at 60mph thursday night when it just DIED. I was driving along all happy, having just merged onto the highway from a turnabout onramp thing, when the engine light, oil light, and battery light come on and I'm decelerating rapidly.

My first thought: "This is bad."

Second thought: "And the car was having such a good week! It hasn't been leaking oil much at all lately."

Third thought: "MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE THERE IS NO OIL!"

Fourth thought: "Regardless, I should probably shift to neutral and pull over."

So I did. Turned on my emergency blinkers and opened the hood and checked all the necessary fluids. I had oil. I had everything. I had no idea what was wrong. I shook some stuff. I mean, what the fuck do you do? In a situation like this you always hope there's something huge an obvious and completely fixable, like, "Oh, there are five squid on top of the engine, I'll move them and it'll work fine."

Then I started it up and drove home okay. But it was still weird.

---

In other news, I was SUPPOSED to go camping this weekend. Seriously... me and a bunch of friends were going to drive about an hour north and camp out by a lake, but it rained a lot and it was all stormy so we called it off. I was very depressed. I bought a new swimsuit two weeks ago and haven't been swimming yet.

We decided to get together anyway though, because we'd all bought an assload of food and beverage in preparation, and we had to do something with it. So we went to one girl's house and made fajitas and got drunk. It was great, and a lot cleaner than camping. We listened to music and played some games and took lots of pictures with digital cameras (digital cameras are so fun when you're drunk with friends!) I got home around 7 this morning. horray for le fun.

Apparently, fords have ignition lock cylinder issues. Major ones. That's what got me stranded at the fight4food Thursday night.

Friday morning I rented a car and dropped my keys at the body shop where I'd JUST gotten my car back the previous day. I told them to look at it, because it was too weird a coincidence that one day my car is in a shop, the next day my car won't move. They called back and said that not only was it not their fault (since they drove it all that week they had it, and I drove it out of their lot and to class before the lock cylinder went out), but they also couldn't fix it, since they're a body shop and this is a mechanical thing. So I called a mechanic, who said the lock assembly would probably have to be replaced... $86 for a part, $100 for labor, $15 to have the assembly fit my existing key, $40-$120 for a locksmith to dig out the existing part since the key assembly can't be taken out unless the key can make it to the ON position (and mine can't).

So then I got on the phone to call dealers. $250 flat, no hidden random possible locksmith charges. They also diagnosed my problem REALLY quickly, which is why I'm really pissed off at Ford right now... every conversation with a dealer I called went something like this:

Me: My key won't turn in the lock. I have a ford focus.
Dealer: Did you try moving the steering wheel and shifter?
Me: YES! Me and like five other people, two of which work for autocraft.
Dealer: Ignition lock cylinder! $250. We always keep these stocked, there are nine on the shelf right now. Wouldn't recommend changing it yourself since it has to be matched to your key.
Me: So this is a common issue?
Dealer: Yeah, we're kinda surprised there hasn't been a recall on these things, especially focuses.
Me: You mean Foci?
Dealer: I mean Visa or Mastercard.

So I had the car towed to the dealership. Insurance covers my tow, so I've got that going for me. The guy with the tow truck showed up, tried to turn the key, and then smiled at me and said, "I sure do see a lot of these!"

You know? I have deep love for my car but this shit it just... grrrr! I've found all sorts of people bitching about this on the internet... guess it's time to join the possible-class-action-lawsuit bandwagon. Oh, I also get to listen to shit from my coworkers for the next * weeks... "I've got advice for you! Don't by Ford! Hahahaha!" people suck.

In the meantime, here's my advice for anyone with a ford. If you notice that it's getting harder and harder to get your key to go in your ignition... you have to wiggle it or something... take it to the dealer before it strands you. If you get to your car one night and you are stranded, don't bother with diagnosing and fixing it like I did. Get yourself a car you can use for a couple days (enterprise picks you up!). Call a tow truck. Have them take it to a dealer. Put down mad cash.

Now I know.